Green design was a pervasive topic in boardrooms and living rooms in 2007, particularly as the costs of maintaining the status quo became apparent. The building of shelter (in all its forms) consumes more than half of the world’s resources—translating into 16% of the Earth’s freshwater resources, 30–40% of all energy supplies, and 50% of all the raw materials withdrawn from the Earth’s surface by weight. Architecture is also responsible for 40–50% of waste deposits in landfills and 20–30% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Unfortunately, too many architects working since the post-World War II building boom have been content to erect emblematic civic and corporate icons that celebrate profligate consumption and omnivorous globalization. More recently, however, designers and users have begun to evaluate a building on its environmental integrity, as embodied in the way it is designed and operated. The green movement is changing the message of architecture from egocentric to ecocentric.

The Rise of Eco-awareness

Environmental advocacy, as an organized social force in the U.S., gained its first serious momentum as part of the youth movement of the 1960s. In rebellion against the perceived evils of high-rise congestion and suburban sprawl, some of the earliest and most dedicated eco-activists moved to rural communes, where they lived in tentlike structures and geodesic domes. In a certain sense, this initial wave of green architecture was based on admirable characteristics of Native Americans’ lifestyle and its minimal impact on the land. At the same time, by isolating themselves from the greater community, these youthful environmentalists were ignoring one of ecology’s most important principles: that interdependent elements work in harmony for the benefit of the whole.

Influential pioneers who supported a more integrative mission during the 1960s and early ’70s included architectural critic and social philosopher Lewis Mumford, landscape architect Ian McHarg, and scientist James Lovelock. They led the way in defining green design, and they contributed significantly to the popularization of environmental principles. For example, in 1973 Mumford proposed a straightforward environmental philosophy: “The solution of the energy crisis would seem simple: transform solar energy via plants and produce enough food power and manpower in forms that would eliminate the wastes and perversions of power demanded by our high-energy technology. In short, plant, eat, and work!”

McHarg, who founded the department of landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, laid the ground rules for green architecture in his seminal book Design with Nature (1969). Envisioning the role of human beings as stewards of the environment, he advocated an organizational strategy, called “cluster development,” that would concentrate living centres and leave as much natural environment as possible to flourish on its own terms. In this regard McHarg was a visionary who perceived the Earth as a self-contained and dangerously threatened entity.

This “whole Earth” concept also became the basis of Lovelock’s Gaia theory. Named after the Greek goddess of nature, his hypothesis defined the entire planet as a single unified organism, continuously maintaining itself for survival. He described this process as “a complex entity involving the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.”

During the 1970s Norwegian environmental philosopher Arne Naess proposed a theory of “deep ecology” (or “ecosophy”), asserting that every living creature in nature is equally important to the Earth’s precisely balanced system. Working in exact opposition to this philosophical view, the destructive politics and economics of the decade accelerated the development of green awareness. The lack of business regulation in the U.S. meant that there were no limits to the consumption of fossil fuels. Meanwhile, the 1973 OPEC oil crisis brought the cost of energy into sharp focus and reminded the global community that it depended on a very small number of petroleum-producing countries for its supplies. This crisis, in turn, brought into relief the need for diversified sources of energy and spurred corporate and government investment in solar, wind, water, and geothermal sources of power.

Green Architecture: Building for the 21st Century: Year In Review 2007. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1382132/Green-Architecture-Building-for-the-21st-Century-Year-In-Review-2007

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